At MSNBC, ‘Tucker’ Is Out, and David Gregory Is In

David Gregory, whose new program, Race for the White House, is to replace Tucker.Credit
Virginia Sherwood/NBC

“Tucker,” the struggling early-evening talk show led by the often bow-tied Tucker Carlson, was canceled on Monday by MSNBC and replaced by a new politically oriented program featuring David Gregory, chief White House correspondent of NBC News.

Mr. Gregory, whose “Race for the White House” will be shown weeknights, beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern time, will continue to cover the White House for NBC News, the parent of the cable channel MSNBC. Mr. Carlson, MSNBC said in a statement, will also remain as a campaign correspondent, covering the presidential race from Washington and the road.

MSNBC also announced that Andrea Mitchell, a veteran political correspondent for both MSNBC and NBC News, would lead another new, campaign-oriented program, this one to be shown beginning at 1 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays. MSNBC currently has regular news programming at that hour.

In swapping Mr. Carlson for Mr. Gregory, each in his late 30s, MSNBC is hoping that a rising star of its news division — Mr. Gregory is also the lead substitute for Matt Lauer on “Today” — can find more success on MSNBC than Mr. Carlson, once a star on CNN’s “Crossfire.”

In a telephone interview Mr. Carlson said his conservative point of view was “out of sync” with the more liberal bent of MSNBC’s other marquee shows, including “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” and “Hardball” with Chris Matthews.

“I don’t think I was a perfect fit in the lineup,” he said. “I think that was obvious to anyone who was tuning in.”

Still, he said, “It’s not my nature to cry bias.”

Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News and executive in charge of MSNBC, said in an interview that the decision was more about Mr. Gregory and his rising profile at NBC than about the viewership for Mr. Carlson’s show. Though badly trailing his competition on Fox News (Brit Hume) and CNN (“The Situation Room”), Mr. Carlson’s program increased its viewership by 24 percent in February 2008, compared with a year earlier, to an average of 430,000 viewers a night, according to NBC’s analysis of data from Nielsen Media Research.

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Tucker Carlson, whose program, Tucker, was canceled.Credit
MSNBC

“The show was doing a little bit better,” Mr. Griffin said. “If David hadn’t come along, we wouldn’t have made the switch.”

“The way I’m looking at it,” he added, “we’ve got an opportunity that fit with what we’re trying to do right now.”

Mr. Gregory, who has led NBC’s coverage of the Bush administration since 2000, was said to be vacationing on Monday and unavailable for comment.

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But Mr. Griffin acknowledged that Mr. Gregory was taking on a Herculean workload in adding his new show to a portfolio that still includes contributing to “Today” and “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams.” Like “Nightly News,” “Race for the White House” will be live. Since “Nightly News” will overlap with the second half of Mr. Gregory’s hourlong show, he will occasionally turn over his program to a panel of regular contributors for several minutes so he can appear live on Mr. Williams’s show, Mr. Griffin said.

Among those expected to be panelists on Mr. Gregory’s program are Joe Scarborough, who is host of the morning program on MSNBC; Eugene Robinson, a regular MSNBC commentator who works for The Washington Post; and Mr. Carlson. The show will have its premiere on Monday and “continue through the election and beyond,” MSNBC said in a news release.

In tapping Mr. Gregory and Ms. Mitchell, MSNBC is further cementing its connection to its parent network at a time when the country is engaged in the Democratic presidential primary, a story MSNBC has put at the center of its coverage. (Last year The New York Times and MSNBC announced they would share some resources in their political reporting, including online coverage.)

“This is a real statement, that David Gregory is doing an hour on MSNBC, while he’s still at the network,” Mr. Griffin said. “MSNBC and NBC News are the same.”